


Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met...)

by Rcmanov



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Big Fish AU, Circus, Coming of Age, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Minor Violence, Na Jaemin is Whipped, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rcmanov/pseuds/Rcmanov
Summary: Jaemin comes from a family with a strange affliction: when they first meet their true love, or soulmate, time stops, before accelerating back to catch up. Jaemin catches a glimpse of Renjun at a circus one night and when time stops, he knows he’s found his soulmate. Unfortunately, once time speeds up again, Renjun disappears before he can ask for his name.





	Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met...)

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was inspired by the movie big fish, directed by tim burton (2003), some of the dialogues are taken directly from the movie! i guess this could be considered spoiler for the movie, please watch it, it's amazing!

It is common knowledge that, when confined to a small aquarium, a goldfish will remain small in size. However, moved to a wider environment, it will significantly grow.

When Na Jaemin, aged 12, read that quirky anecdote, he realised 2 things. First of all, he was destined for something much bigger. Second of all, he would never be able to achieve it in his small native town of Ashton.

At the ripe age of 13, Jaemin had created his own flourishing lawn-mowing business. By the age of 14, he had won the town’s science fair. He had joined his high school’s basketball, football and baseball team by his 15th birthday, quickly becoming a star player. His reputation was well-established when, aged 16, he saved a dog from a burning house.

On the evening of his 17th birthday, during the summer break before his senior year, Jaemin sat at the window, dreaming of escaping. Not quite escaping. He just yearned to see the world, restricted as he felt in his hometown, and so he thought of running away. The moon looked back at him, full and round, lighting up the entire neighbourhood in an almost unnatural silver light, and told him to wait just one more year. Yes, school was a burden for such a formidable boy eager to fly on his own but leaving early was putting oneself through another kind of suffering.

And so, having been taught that he should always follow advice given by the moon herself, Jaemin patiently waited. He led the different sports teams to win the state championship. His company launched a new newspaper delivery service. He got good grades, and so his parents were satisfied.

By the end of spring, he was starting to grow desperate. It seemed that he was doomed to remain in Ashton for the rest of his days. Not that he was unhappy. Jaemin had a lot of love to give, and people loved him back (except that one Don Price guy, but Jaemin couldn’t be bothered with him). He knew by heart the large, orderly streets of the town, knew by name its inhabitants, the shopkeepers, had gone to primary, middle and high school with the exact same people. He knew their qualities and flaws, their personalities, and it was suffocating. When he went to bed on that warm June evening, he wished for a miracle that would steal him away from Ashton and send him soaring into the wider world.

On the next morning, Jaemin found the people of Ashton grouped on the main square, their attention turned to the mayor who seemed to try to contain a growing discontent.

“This can’t go on any longer!” shouted a woman in the crowd.

“It’s the 5th sheep this week!” agreed another.

“If no one does shit, then I will,” added a man, brandishing what dangerously looked like a shotgun.

The mayor raised his hands in what he wanted to be a reassuring gesture, before finally speaking into the mic conveniently installed in front of him:

“We will find a solution. We can send someone to try to appeal to the giant, find a compromise. Any volunteers?”

In that instant, Jaemin knew this was the chance the moon had promised almost a year ago. As the villagers looked at each other, none of them brave enough to volunteer, he nonchalantly put his arm up and declared:

“I’ll go!”

And everyone turned in worry of what could happen to the golden son of Ashton.

 

Thought the mayor had talked about a “giant”, Jaemin had no idea what to expect. He climbed the hill that led up to the cave wondering what would be waiting for him. Aged seventeen and a half, almost eighteen, growing up in the middle of nowhere, this was both exciting and terrifying. _Thrilling_. By the time he reached the top, he had imagined and cast aside a thousand scenarios, most of them including him running away from Ashton. Only a handful involved dying at the hands of the giant. Jaemin knew this was not his time, but there was always a risk.

He carefully walked over to the entrance of the cave, framed by dead trees and growing lichens. He took a deep inhale. This was not his time.

“Hello there?”

Jaemin waited a moment, but no answer came from the inside of the cave. He continued:

“I was told to find someone here. Was I mistaken?”

Again, he waited. After a few seconds, he heard some rustling coming from the inside, echoing against the stone. Jaemin held his breath, his limbs almost trembling with anticipation. And when a lanky shadow approached the entrance, Jaemin’s eyes grew even larger with surprise.

From the cave emerged the tallest boy Jaemin had ever seen, easily taller than any of the houses that orderly lined up the streets of Ashton. His hair was long and tangled, full of twigs and dead leaves.

“What are you doing here?” the giant asked, his voice higher and less assured than Jaemin would have expected.

“I’m a human sacrifice. I was sent by the people of Ashton to be eaten so that you stop stealing sheep and destroying gardens.”

Jaemin read shock on the giant’s face.

“I- I don’t want a human sacrifice. Go away.”

“I can’t,” Jaemin replied. “I can’t go back.”

The giant’s confusion seemed to grow. Jaemin added:

“You see, if I go back like that, everyone will think I’m a coward. You need to kill me or come back with me.”

The giant hesitated. He had never met anyone as confusing as Na Jaemin.

“Come on, eat me. I’m not the meatiest, but there’s some muscle on my legs,” Jaemin tried to joke, pointing to his calves and thighs.

That was the moment the giant chose to burst into tears. He covered his face with his giant hands, and Jaemin almost missed what he said.

“I- I can’t- I can’t _eat_ you!”

The giant collapsed on a stone near the entrance of the cave, sobs making his shoulders shake. Jaemin was embarrassed. He had no idea how to comfort a crying giant.

“Listen… I’m Na Jaemin. Would you like to join me on an adventure... What’s your name?”

The giant lifted his face from his hands, his eyes red with crying, snot dripping from his nose.

“I’m Jisung. Park Jisung,” he offered with a small voice.

“Well, Jisung, I find this town way too small for someone like me, so I can’t imagine how it must be for someone of your size.”

Jisung nodded.

“I’m going to go to the city, where there are buildings so tall, you’d look ridiculously small next to them. You can come with me if you want. What do you think about that?”

Jisung seemed to be convinced by Jaemin’s confidence. He considered the idea for a while before wiping the tears from his cheeks and shrugging.

“I suppose that’s as good an idea as any.”

Jaemin offered him his very own legendary smile, the one that had won over Ashton years ago.

“What do you think about getting a haircut first?”

 

On the day of their departure, three days after Jaemin had befriended Jisung, Jaemin’s parents smothered him in a rib-crushing hug. Jaemin had been welcomed back as a hero, and so the mayor had gifted him the town’s key as a reward for his good deeds for Ashton. The town threw a party to celebrate its golden son’s departure, and once it was done, all that remained was Jaemin, a backpack, his parents and Jisung, standing at the edge of the town, ready to turn a new page of the book.

He promised to be careful, to eat healthy and to write as often as he could. Jaemin wasn’t worried. He knew that, after he left, things would be the same, just as they had been years before he was born. Maybe this was the charm of small countryside towns.

When they finally left Ashton, they were faced with two roads. The old one, heading into dark woods, had become somewhat of a legend for the children of Ashton. No one who took it ever came back. The new one, straight and neatly paved, was faster and safer. Jaemin and Jisung both decided to take the new road, eager to start a new life in the city. Jaemin knew of the story of a neat little town tucked far away into the woods on the old road, a town so perfect no one ever left it. But he also knew this was not his time.

They turned away from the old road, quietly starting their journey on the paved road, leaving Ashton behind them. At first, they walked in a comfortable silence. After a few hours, Jaemin discovered that Jisung was a gifted storyteller, and so he listened to the giant boy’s stories, smiling fondly as he gestured excitedly while retelling specific details. The first night, they slept under the stars, the embers of the dying fire between them as they stared at the sky above them.

The night was falling on the second day of their adventure when they sighted a peculiar view among the trees of the forest. Flashes of yellow and red among the darkness of the trees. The two boys looked at each other, before wordlessly walking in that direction.

As they got closer, Jaemin finally understood the splash of colours they had made out from the distance. A circus tent was standing in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by caravans. They heard muted music and applause until they were only a few steps away. Jaemin could almost feel the heat radiating from the tent he felt inexplicably drawn to.

He quietly slid inside the tent, Jisung trailing behind him, sitting on the bench closest to the exit.

The circus tent seemed like a whole new world. Though he had seen the light filter through the fabric and heard the muffled music from outside, he was completely unprepared for the explosion of colours and sounds inside. Multi-coloured spots illuminated the stage, dancing across the previously neatly raked sand. Music accompanied the furious ballet of acrobats throwing themselves at the ceiling, defying gravity.

Jaemin tried to keep his jaw from dislocating as he gaped at the scene. What he was seeing was so far from what he had known all his life in quiet, little Ashton. The circus was a whirlwind of wonder and illusion, and he felt in his stomach that this was possibly the spark he had been longing for all along. With a furtive glance to his right, he caught Jisung starry-eyed beside him, as the boy seemed enthralled by the performance. Jaemin resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks, while the next performers were announced.

That was the moment Jaemin’s gaze fell on a boy across the stage and time stopped.

Jaemin’s mother, and Jaemin through her, came from a family with a strange affliction. Like most people, they each had a soulmate, a person they’d been deeply connected to since birth, a person who would be the perfect match for them. For the majority of people, those soulmates went unnoticed. So many great love stories had been lost to unlucky soulmates, only meeting briefly at the supermarket, or on holidays abroad, because people had no way of knowing that this one person was the one they’d fall in love forever, if only they talked. For Jaemin’s family, however, things went differently. When they met their soulmate, time stopped. Jaemin had many times been told about how his mother had found time stuck in place as she lay her eyes on the new milkman on her doorstep that fateful Thursday morning, where she’d been up way too early.

And thus, when time stopped and Jaemin felt himself irresistibly drawn to that lean black haired boy across the room, he knew better than to be surprised. He got up from his seat, eyes glued to the other boy, slowly avoiding obstacles on his path as he crossed the stage, moving aside jugglers and their ignited torches suspended in the air, dodging the metal circle a dancer was about to leap through.

The other boy, whose name remained unknown to Jaemin, was standing in the middle of the aisle leading to the other exit on the side of the tent opposite the one Jaemin had been sitting at. He finally got close enough to the boy to notice that he was slightly shorter, had delicate features that Jaemin was in love with already, and that the blue shirt he was wearing was too big for him. His mouth formed a round little ‘o’ as if he had been caught right as he stepped into the tent, filled with the same amazement Jaemin had felt only moments earlier.

A shy smile crept onto Jaemin’s lips. He looked at the boy in front of him. This was what the universe had in store for him. He gazed fondly at the scrawny boy, committing the cute point of his nose, the pink of his cheeks, the slight curve of his shoulders to memory. He almost raised his hand to touch the other, just to make sure that he was real, but held himself back. This was only the beginning, he told himself.

They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.

Suddenly, the moment shattered, and time abruptly started again and sped up. Jaemin watched helplessly as the performance behind him ended in a rush, the crowd promptly got up from their seats, flowing out of the tent and Jaemin was left staring, horrified, as he witnessed the love of his life, his soulmate, exit the circus tent with them before Jaemin could even ask for his name, and hear his voice. The bright spots went out as the staff cleaned the stage and left to run back to their caravans in their furious, accelerated motion, until only Jaemin and the circus director remained. Finally, time settled back into its normal pace.

“The hell are you doing standing here, kid?”

Jaemin tried to forget about how he had just seen the love of his life slip through his fingers and focused his attention back to the circus manager and his coppery hair. He was wearing a velvety red suit, and his skin appeared even darker in the dim light, the shadows casting mysterious shadows on his face. He stepped closer as Jaemin took his time to answer, the moonlight revealing a mole under his left eye, close to his nose. Jaemin finally answered, his voice hesitant:

“I just saw my soulmate. I know it. But I lost him. Before I could even ask for his name.”

“Oh, tough break,” he simply commented, his voice devoid of actual empathy.

“I'm gonna spend every day for the rest of my life looking for him,” Jaemin declared. “That, or die alone.”

The other boy sent him a curious glance, quickly assessing him. He quickly walked up to him and put a hand on Jaemin’s shoulder, in what seemed to attempt to be a comforting gesture.

“Damn, kid. Lemme guess. Real pretty?” the circus director asked. “Black fluffy hair? Blue oversized shirt?”

Jaemin’s eyes suddenly lit up, hope coming back to him.

“Yeah!”

“I know his uncle. Friends of the family.” The other boy admitted.

Jaemin felt his hands shaking with excitation. Maybe not all hope was lost after all. He caught the other’s hand between his and brought it close to his chest.

“Who is he?” Jaemin urged him. “Where does he live?”

The circus boy promptly freed his hand from Jaemin’s grasp, shaking his head before answering:

“Forget it kid, don't waste your time. He's out of your league.”

“What do you mean? You don't even know me-” Jaemin started to argue, outraged.

“Sure I do! You were hot shit back in Hickville, but here in the real world, you got squat!” the other shot back, pointing an accusing finger at Jaemin’s chest. “You don't have a plan, you don't have a job, you don't have anything except the clothes on your back.”

Jaemin puffed up his chest, crossed his arms, and summoned the most determined expression he could find in himself. He felt, no, he _knew_ he had to do everything in his power to find his soulmate. This was how things had always been in his family, ever since time stopped for the first time, generations and generations before. When he opened his mouth again, his tone was unwavering and resolute:

“I’ll find that boy, my soulmate, and spend the rest of my life with him. I don’t have a job, but I would have a job if you gave me one. Now I may not have much, but I have more determination than anyone you're ever likely to meet.”

“I’m sorry, boy but I don’t do charity.”

The circus director started to walk away, leaving Jaemin standing in the darkness. In a last dire attempt, Jaemin shouted, desperate:

“Wait, look I’ll work night and day for you and you won’t have to pay me! You just have to tell me who he is!”

The other froze. He seemed to think for an instant, before slowly turning and walking back towards Jaemin. This was an amazing opportunity. Someone to do all the dirty a circus required, someone he wouldn’t need to pay. The boy with the copper hair nodded.

“Every month you work for me, I’ll tell you one thing about him. That’s my final offer.”

Jaemin extended a hand:

“I’m Na Jaemin.”

“I’m Lee Donghyuck, and you can start working tomorrow at 5am sharp.”

 

And so Jaemin’s life at the circus began. He woke up before dawn, accomplishing whatever low tasks had been left for him by anyone in the circus. Jisung had signed a contract as the giant teen he was, and so they shared a (very large) caravan where they slept at night. Jaemin cooked for Jisung and Jisung tried his best not to break things around him. He went to bed at night, the image of his soulmate behind his eyelids as he fell asleep. He sometimes went three days without eating, four without sleeping. The only thing that kept him going was the promise of meeting the boy who would be the love of his life.

“Donghyuck!” he called the circus director as he passed by the attraction Jaemin was currently working at. “It’s been a month today.”

Donghyuck looked confused, tilting his head slightly.

“My soulmate,” Jaemin explained.

Donghyuck’s face lit up.

“Ah! Your boy!” He thought for an instant. “His favourite flowers are daffodils.”

Jaemin stored the precious piece of information away in a tidy little drawer in his brain. That evening, he whispered to Jisung as they were about to fall asleep “his favourite flowers are daffodils.” He repeated it to a client in the morning. He breathed it to himself as he saw the timid flowers bloom on the edge of the clearing. The very knowledge kept him going.

And so it happened every month.

“He’s going to college.”

“He likes music.”

“He’s interested in space.”

Over the two years he spent working at the circus, he learnt a lot about the boy who was going to be the love of his life. But not his name, not where to find him. That time had come. Jaemin couldn’t wait any longer.

One morning, as Jisung was sitting outside, thinking about life and space and what he wanted to eat for breakfast, he watched as Jaemin walked over to Donghyuck’s caravan, cracking the door open without knocking, and slammed the door behind him.

Jisung stared at the visibly perfectly soundproof caravan for what felt like hours, observing it shake a little from time to time. He postponed his breakfast. He couldn’t miss the resolution of the bizarre situation. Finally, the door opened again, Jaemin emerging with a triumphant smile, Donghyuck trailing behind him in a dressing gown. He scratched his belly underneath his t-shirt and declared:

 “I was wrong about you kid. You may not have much, but what you got, you got a lot of. You could get anyone.”

Jaemin chuckled.

“There’s only one person I want, Lee.”

Donghyuck smiled, a smile that bloomed across his lips, reaching his eyes, the kind of smile that looked like it could turn into laughter any second.

“His name is Huang Renjun. He goes to Auburn. Semester’s almost over so you better hurry!”

 

Finally armed with his soulmate’s name and an idea of his whereabouts, Jaemin left Jisung and the circus, not without the promise to visit once he was reunited with the love of his life. He got on the bus, giddy, carrying a modest, single daffodil. He looked at the bright yellow of the flower as the countryside made way for the buildings of the city, and wondered if his soulmate’s personality was as bright and warm as his favourite flower.

He got off the bus in the middle of campus, slightly disoriented by how… plain and normal it was. Students made their way across the central square, exited and entered buildings, chatting, laughing, smiling. Jaemin stood there, confused, for a few seconds, but soon enough his determination took over again. He had spent two years working towards that goal. He checked the address Donghyuck had given him one more time, before he walked decidedly towards one of the campus dorms, ignoring the looks from girls standing nearby. He stopped at number 7, allowing himself to hesitate for a split second before he knocked on the door, 3 determined knocks.

Jaemin waited a handful of seconds before he heard someone fumble with the doorknob on the other side, and the door opened on a slim black-haired boy. Jaemin held his breath. Here he was. He saw Renjun’s brows furrow in confusion, took a deep breath, and asked:

“Huang Renjun?”

Renjun tilted his head slightly, intrigued.

“Yes?”

Jaemin wasn’t really sure what he had expected Renjun’s voice to sound like, but whatever it was, it didn’t even come close to what he felt now that the other boy had uttered this simple word. Spring, flowers, promises and soulmates. Jaemin straightened his back, serious, and finally let out:

“You don't know me, but my name is Na Jaemin and I love you. I’ve spent the last two years working to find out who you are. I’ve been shot, stabbed, and trampled a few times. I broke my ribs twice. But it’s all been worth it, to see you here now and finally get to talk to you. Because we’re soulmates. I knew it the moment I saw you at the circus and I know it now more than ever.”

There was a silence. Jaemin waited for what felt like an eternity. Renjun looked down at the floor, before lifting his head again, a pale excuse of a smile on his lips. He looked pain.

“I- I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologise to me!” Jaemin quickly tried to reassure him. “I finally found you. I’m the luckiest person you’re gonna find today!”

“No, I’m sorry. I really am. I’m engaged to be married.”

“Oh.”

Jaemin felt like all air had been knocked out from his lungs. This couldn’t be. He and Renjun were meant to be. They had to, time had stopped for them.

“But you’re wrong, I do know you,” Renjun added, a strange fondness in his gaze. “At least by reputation. Na Jaemin from Ashton. See, I’m actually engaged to a boy from Ashton, Don Price. He was a few years older than you.”

Jaemin’s eyes narrowed slightly. After all this work to leave Ashton... the boy he loved was engaged to one of its biggest jerk. He swallowed back his pride, replying:

“Well… Congratulations.” He handed the flower to Renjun, noticing the surprise on his face when he realised the flower was a daffodil. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Fate had a cruel way of circling around on you.

Jaemin turned around as Renjun closed the door behind him. He climbed down the 3 steps that led down the little balcony, took a few steps in the grass towards the central square, almost resigned.

Almost. Nothing could get in the way of true love. He hadn’t come so far to give up now. He furiously walked back towards the dorm, halting a few metres from it, and shouted from the top of his lungs:

“Huang Renjun, I love you, and I will marry you!”

He didn’t see the blush on Renjun’s face as he was leaning his back against the door, pressing the flower to his heart.

 

It was a slow April afternoon as Renjun was sitting in a lecture hall, the sunrays bathing the room in a warm light, painfully reminding the students that they were sitting through a medieval history lecture instead of enjoying the weather outside. Renjun let himself be distracted, the lecturer’s voice a background noise as he started sketching instead of taking notes.

“So as you can see, the steady development of cities not only completely remodelled the dynamics of population within the country, but also intimately affected people’s daily lives.”

Renjun mechanically nodded along. He knew all of this. On the page, his archer started taking shape. The lecturer continued:

“If we take a look at the next graph…”

The audible gasp that the class let out made Renjun lift his head from where he was doodling on his notebook, redirecting his attention to the slideshow projected on the board.

His jaw would have been left hanging if he hadn’t mastered the art of keeping a straight under any circumstances. Instead of the promised graph, the slide had been replaced by a message. Renjun felt his face heat up, from embarrassment, but also from blushing. He was hyper-aware of the fact that he was the centre of attention.

The lecturer, after a moment of utter confusion, apologised profusely before proceeding to the next slide, which this time showed the correct graph. The lecture went on.

Renjun was frozen in place, not quite comprehending what had just happened. He couldn’t get the image out of his head.

“HUANG RENJUN I LOVE YOU”

Written in bold, red letters across the slide. With a heart around it. Who was foolish enough to do that, he asked himself and heard the other students whisper to each other as well.

Fools in love, his heart answered. Fools in love did that.

 

Renjun was walking across campus, books pressed to his chest, Jeno by his side retelling an anecdote from his basketball practice. He was nodding along, chuckling as he heard of the team’s antics. He had met Jeno on the first day of the semester, as they had been paired up to be roommates.

Jeno suddenly stopped in his tracks, gripping Renjun’s arm so the other boy would come to a stop as well.

“Look!”

Renjun followed Jeno’s arm pointing towards the sky.

A plane was finishing up writing a message in the sky. Renjun wouldn’t have been able to repress the fond smile on his face if he had wanted to.

“I LOVE RENJUN”

He pressed a hand to his mouth, shocked. He shouldn’t have doubted _him_.

“Do you have a secret admirer?” Jeno asked, playful. “Don won’t like it.”

Renjun’s smile grew wider, the corners of his eyes lifting.

“Not so secret. I think I know who it is.”

He resumed walking before adding:

“And who cares about what Don thinks?”

Jeno laughed as he jogged after him to catch up.

 

Renjun woke up on a Saturday morning in May, unsuspecting. He had declined Jeno’s invitation to go to a party, and so he felt rested when he lay in bed stretching. He had no assignments to complete, no shift at work. The perfect lazy Saturday where the world was his and he could choose to lie in bed. His day was starting wonderfully.

He got up, the wood of the floor almost warm against his bare feet. He considered his clothes for a second, shrugging when he deemed the large t-shirt and the leggings an acceptable enough attire. He pushed aside the light curtains, opening the shutters. He stopped dead in his tracks when he took a look at the view outside his window.

Jaemin was standing outside the building, in the middle of what looked like an entire field of daffodils. The green was covered by an ocean of yellow and in its centre stood Na Jaemin, looking expectedly at the window.

“Daffodils!” Renjun let out before he covered his mouth with his hands in surprise.

Jaemin’s smile was so bright that Renjun was blinded, even from a distance.

“They're your favourite flower.”

Renjun nodded slightly. He didn’t believe his eyes.

“How did you get so many?” he asked, astounded.

“I called everywhere in five states,” Jaemin explained, looking like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I told them it was the only way to get my soulmate to fall in love with me.”

Renjun pressed his hands to his chest.

Jaemin watched as Renjun disappeared from the window. He should have been nervous. Instead, he felt as though he had never been so serene in his life. This was where he was supposed to be. This was where his heart called him to be.

The door burst open and Renjun came running out of it, obviously looking like he had just woken up. And despite that fact, Jaemin had never seen someone so beautiful in his life. Renjun almost crashed against Jaemin’s chest. His black hair was falling just right, his shirt showed a tiny glimpse of his collarbone and, Jaemin noticed with a smile, he had run out of the dorm barefoot.

“You don't even know me,” Renjun attempted to argue, out of breath.

Jaemin tilted his head slightly to look Renjun straight in the eyes and delicately arranged a rebel strand of the shorter boy’s hair. His smile grew a little wider.

“I have the rest of my life to find out.”

“Renjun!” an angry voice suddenly called from behind them.

Renjun gripped his hand. Jaemin could read panic in Renjun’s eyes as he explained quickly:

“It's Don. Promise you won't hurt him.”

“If that's truly what you want, I promise you I won’t fight.” He swore despite not understanding the reason behind Renjun’s concern. He squeezed Renjun hand. This was all he needed to know.

“Na?”

Jaemin turned around, a cocky smile on his lips, meeting the other’s boy furious stare. Don price looked the same as he remembered him in Ashton. Shaped like a bull, about as smart as one.

“Don.”

“What the hell are you doing? This is my boy. Mine!” Don asked furiously as he grabbed Jaemin by the collar, shaking him.

Jaemin didn’t tense. He had something Don didn’t know he was armed with. The knowledge that Renjun and he were meant to be. He grinned.

“I wasn't aware that he belonged to anyone.”

Jaemin barely had time to realise what was happening when the fist connected with his nose. He heard Renjun’s scream. He felt pain explode in his face. Don threw him back to the floor. He didn’t register what was happening. He slowly patted his nose with his fingers, wincing. When he looked at his hand, it was bloodied. He looked up at Don as he heard him spoke.

“What's the matter? Are you too scared to fight back?”

Jaemin’s senses seemed to come back to him as he got up and shot back:

“I promised I wouldn't.”

If he had to be honest, he’d say that the second punch hurt less than the first one, though it sent him rolling back to the floor.

“Stop it! Don, stop!” Renjun tried to stop him, but Don only pushed him aside, kicking Jaemin in the stomach.

While Jaemin took the beating of a lifetime, Don Price was ultimately defeated. All the physical activity had worsened a congenital valve defect. Put simply, his heart wasn't strong enough. He’d die a few years later of a stroke, in a rather ridiculous way.

Renjun stomped his feet and shouted:

“Don! I will never marry you.”

Don Price stopped dead in his tracks, incredulously looking at the scrawny boy. If looks could kill, Don would’ve been long gone, given the deadly stare Renjun was giving him.

“What? You mean, you love this guy?”

He pointed at Jaemin. Renjun nodded, standing straight full of pride. He somehow managed to look down at Don despite their height difference. At that moment, Jaemin fell a little more in love with him.

“He's almost a stranger, and I prefer him to you.” Then he added for good measure “Fuck off.”

Renjun looked at Jaemin on the floor for a second, holding his gaze, before offering a shy smile and a helping hand to get up. He pulled Jaemin up, and suddenly they were standing centimetres from each other.

“Do you know what daffodils mean?” Renjun asked softly.

Jaemin nodded.

“I have no idea.”

Taken aback, Renjun chuckled, and Jaemin wished he could capture the sound in a small bottle he’d carry with him, close to his heart so he’d always feel the warm, fuzzy sensation dancing in his stomach at that moment. It was Renjun’s turn to rearrange Jaemin’s golden brown hair.

“It symbolizes chivalry and new beginnings.” He smiled to himself, recalling the first time Jaemin had visited his dorm. “A single daffodil foretells a misfortune,” he gestured towards the ocean of yellow, “while a bunch of daffodils indicates joy and happiness.”

Jaemin’s expression slowly lit up with acknowledgement until a blinding smile that reached all the way to his eyes fully bloomed on his features. Renjun resisted the urge to lift his hand to cup the other’s cheek, and instead let his fingers flutter above Jaemin’s bloodied face. The feather-light touch made Jaemin shiver.

“I don’t know you, but somehow I do,” Renjun whispered.

“You’ll think I’m crazy,” Jaemin laughed. Renjun gestured for him to go on with a small nod of the head.

“When I met you, time stopped. Because you’re my soulmate.”

Renjun laughed again. Then, slowly, he cleaned the blood off Jaemin’s face with his thumbs and let a shy smile creep on his lips. Jaemin looked back at him, eyes full of fondness. This was exactly where he was meant to be. Just a tiny, bold leap of faith away from being in Renjun’s embrace. Renjun tiptoed and left a chaste peck on Jaemin’s lips, laughter bubbling.

“Is that so?”

 

One incredibly hot summer afternoon, Jaemin and Renjun were curled up in bed.

“I feel like I’m melting,” Renjun mumbled somewhere against Jaemin chest.

Jaemin kept stroking the boy’s luscious black hair, leaving a kiss on the crown of Renjun’s head. He couldn’t see the other boy’s face, but he knew he was smiling. The heat was unbearable and yet he hadn’t let Renjun go once he had woken up from his nap. Jaemin had simply set his book aside and cuddled him. He had been too afraid to wake Renjun up and so he had read, scarcely daring to move to turn the pages, and gazed at the sleeping boy in his lap.

He would never get used to the sight. This was the closest he would get to their first encounter. Time was like suspended when they were both lying in bed, the comfortable silent only disturbed by the buzzing of insects and the sound of their breathing.

Jaemin felt Renjun move against him and loosened his hold on him as the smaller boy crawled so that they were both lying on their sides, facing each other. Sweat was sticking his hair to his forehead. Jaemin moved it aside fondly and Renjun’s eyelashes fluttered as he seemed to emerge from his heat-knocked out state. His eyes met Jaemin’s.

“I think that if we cuddle for long enough, we’ll fuse into one monstrous being.”

Jaemin grinned and tangled their legs further, ignoring Renjun’s disapproving yelp.

“Perfect,” he teased as Renjun was pressed even closer against him.

Their gazes locked again. Jaemin’s indulged in the feeling of Renjun’s breath against his warm skin as a small breeze passed through the open window. Jaemin’s arm was curled around Renjun’s waist, while the other boy’s hand was resting against his neck.

He didn’t miss the way Renjun’s gaze went to his lips and lingered there a second too long, before looking up again. Jaemin’s smile grew even cockier.

He licked his own lips, smirking. Renjun’s eyes grew wider as he gazed at him. Renjun’s face was already pink from the heat, but his cheeks grew even redder with a blush. Gently, Jaemin leaned in until their foreheads touched. They stayed there a moment, Jaemin revelling in the heat, in Renjun’s faint smell of wild flowers and old paper.

Then, timidly, Renjun leaned in, closing the distance between their lips.

It was a slow, lazy kiss, the kind that fit perfectly with the atmosphere of the room. Slow, like they had all the time in the world. Lazy, like they were the only ones that really mattered. Renjun’s hands were suddenly on the side of Jaemin’s face, bringing him closer and closer, though there was no space left between them. Renjun captured Jaemin’s bottom lip between his own and gently sucked on it. Jaemin’s hands were in Renjun’s hair, messing with the soft strands. He opened his mouth to let the other in. Jaemin tasted like cherries and rainy days and a hundred more things Renjun was eager to explore, and so he did. He shifted his head slightly to get better access, his hands caressing Jaemin’s cheeks.

Maybe Renjun was right, and in that instant, they weren’t Renjun and Jaemin anymore, but the sum of their tongues and lips and bodies, and all of that merged into one in the scorching heat of August. Renjun kissed him like he couldn’t get enough, and Jaemin was more than happy to let himself get carried away.

They finally pulled away, breathless. Jaemin looked at Renjun, his messy hair, unfocused eyes and smiled to himself. There was something exhilarating about having the most beautiful boy in the world looking wrecked pressed against him, and knowing that this was all his work. He leaned in once again, ignoring Renjun’s questioning gaze, and gently kissed the side of his jaw. He continued down Renjun’s throat, leaving kisses along as he felt Renjun shiver against him, swallowing with difficulty. When Jaemin reached Renjun collarbone, he left one more kiss there, before sucking on a little square of skin.

“What-” Renjun started to argue, before letting out a yelp and exhaling loudly.

Once Jaemin deemed that had been enough to leave a mark, he gently kissed Renjun’s collarbone again, before he was dragged up by Renjun. He kissed Jaemin’s forehead, the touch electrifying, before burying his face in the other’s neck, mumbling something.

“I didn’t quite catch that,” Jaemin said softly.

Renjun tore himself from Jaemin’s neck for an instant, whispering again:

“I love you.”

And though that had been the first thing Jaemin had told him when they met, Renjun had never let himself utter the words. Jaemin’s hold tightened around him. He wanted to hold Renjun closer, closer still, when there was already no more space between them. He felt the other snuggle closer in his neck, the touch soothing despite the heat. Jaemin let out a sigh of content, breathing in the scent of jasmine in Renjun’s hair, closing his eyelids.

He whispered to himself:

“His favourite flowers are daffodils.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! you made it to the end! i really wasn't planning on writing this tbh, but i got this idea and realised i HAD to write it. i hope you enjoyed it!!  
> you can check out the rest of my work on ao3!  
> [buy me a coffee!](http://ko-fi.com/rcmanov)  
> find me on twitter screaming [@kygotseven](http://twitter.com/kygotseven)
> 
> remember that kudos and comments and bookmarks keep authors alive (especially me bc uni and life in general is killing me) and see you next time!! i have a couple of ideas and super supportive friends ♥


End file.
